


The Girl Who Believed

by frostmrajick



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-07 00:36:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1878399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frostmrajick/pseuds/frostmrajick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack Frost meets a child who believes</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "I believe in everything."

**Author's Note:**

> My first time posting. I used to write a lot, and I'm trying to get back into it--hoping an official post will encourage me to continue! :) I more or less have the whole story worked out, just fleshing out the details and getting it written down. Comments and criticism are much appreciated.

He didn’t know why the girl was alone. There were children all over the playground...except around her. She was a pretty girl, with pale blond, curly hair. She would walk around the tree she sat under sometimes, and he couldn’t see anything about her that would deter the other children so. He almost thought she might be a spirit, too, except once in awhile, a grown-up would come over and talk to her. She would seem uninterested in their talk, but when they walked away, her eyes followed them hungrily, then sliding over the other groups of children with a longing bordering starvation.

Jack knew the feeling.

He wondered why she didn’t ask the other children to play. No one even looked at her, though, so he wasn’t sure if they would let her even if she asked.

He moved closer, feeling sympathy for her. He didn’t know why she was alone, but he knew that it was no fun.

Suddenly, she looked up, and if he didn’t know any better, he would have thought she was staring right at him. But that was impossible, nobody saw him, nobody believed in him, he was invisible and incorporeal to everyone.

“It’s not nice to stare,” she said.

He turned to look behind him. No one. He looked back, into those pale blue eyes--eyes whose color he had only ever seen in his own reflection in an icy lake.

He pointed to himself, asking, “Are you talking to me?”

She nodded. “Duh.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “You can see me?” he asked.

She nodded again. “Of course I can.”

“But...no one can see me.” After so many years of that being the truth, it was almost incomprehensible that it would be any different, even as she was speaking to him.

She frowned at him. “That’s silly. You’re right there.” Before he could think, she was reaching out a hand to him--he flinched as it made unexpected solid contact. “See?”

He didn’t answer. He couldn’t think, he was so surprised by the feeling of the hand on his abdomen. He slowly placed his own hand over it in wonder.

She looked up at him, confusion touching her features. “You’re not kidding, huh?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“How come?”

He shrugged. “Nobody believes in me. I’m Jack Frost.”

“Like ‘Jack Frost nipping at your nose’ Jack Frost?”

He grinned. “That’s me.”

“Wow.” Her eyes grew wide. “So people can only see you if they believe?”

“That’s right.” His grin faded. “You’re the first person in...well, in a very long time who’s been able to see me.”

She smiled. “I believe in everything. That’s what my parents say. Which isn’t quite true, there’s probably some stuff I don’t believe in, but mostly…” She looked past him at the other kids sadly. “It’s why no one wants to play with me,” she said. “They say I’m weird, that I’m a baby.” She thrust her chin out defiantly. “But I don’t care. I like believing. I’m gonna believe forever!”

He smiled. “You do that, kiddo. Shows what they know, right? After all,” he spread his arms wide, “here I am!”

She laughed in delight. “My name’s Alice,” she told him. “Since I already know you’re name, you should know mine.”

“Good to meet you, Alice.”

Her parents weren’t happy about her new “imaginary” friend. When she told them enthusiastically about him, her mother asked why she didn’t make some real friends. She was too old for imaginary ones. Her father was more allowing. He took her mother aside and they had “a discussion.” In the end, her mother frowned but didn’t say anything else about it, and when she tentatively brought it up to her father, he said, “That’s nice, dear,” and asked about her school friends. She had none.

She didn’t need them. She and Jack would build snowmen together, forts, launch snowball attacks at each other. She was certain she had never laughed more than when she was with him.  
And Jack couldn’t remember the last time he had been so happy. It had been centuries since he had last been able to interact with anyone. He had begun to think he would be lonely for the rest of his existence.


	2. A Season for Everything, and an End to Every Season

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack learns never to stay in one place too long.

He hadn’t stayed in one place for so long in awhile, for the whole of that winter. When spring finally came, he got that familiar itch to travel, to leave, but he didn’t want to ever leave his new friend. A part of him worried that if he left, there would be nothing to return to, that she would look right through him just like everyone else.

They had a record snowfall that year. Alice’s parents were unhappy about it, but she was thrilled because it meant more playing with Jack.

It was late April, and people were talking about the snow. Even some of Alice’s classmates were starting to complain, wondering if they’d ever get a summer. Plus, the school had used up its allotted snow days; any more, and summer vacation would be pushed back. As far as Alice was concerned, it could stay winter forever. Snow to her meant Jack, and fun, and the more fun they had, the more it snowed.

One day, they lost track of time playing hide and seek in the woods behind her school. It was one of Alice’s favorite games, especially when Jack would create a mountain of snow to hide behind and pretend to be surprised when she managed to find him. Alice liked to use distance to her advantage, running as far away as possible and then diving in the first halfway decent place she could find. Sometimes they ended up getting quite a ways from home. This time was no different.

“Got you!” Jack cried, tackling her in her hiding place--halfway buried under a blanket of snow.

She shrieked in delight, pretending to push him off her. She looked up at the sky, and her laughter died. “Um, Jack? I think I need to go home now.”

He looked up, seeing that the sun was almost completely gone by now. Uh-oh. She was sure to get in trouble when they got back. This had happened a couple of times before, and her parents had gotten really angry. They had never been this late, and he could only imagine what they would do this time. “I think that’s a good idea.”

She hesitated. “Jack? Which way do we go?”

A good question. With the light all but gone, and the distance they had run, he wasn’t sure where they were, either. “I’m going to fly up and see if I can figure out where we are. I’ll be right back, okay?”

“No, Jack,” she said, voice rising in fear. No longer distracted by their game, she was suddenly very cold, her coat and gloves wet from being buried in the snow. She rubbed her arms and shook her head. “Don’t leave me.”

“It’ll just be for a second. I have to, so we can figure out where we need to go.” He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her reassuringly. “Don’t worry. I promise I’ll be right back.”

She frowned but didn’t say anything else. He squeezed her shoulder before lifting off.

The problem was that with all the trees, it was hard to see exactly where they were, and which direction they needed to go.

She had sat down, huddling to conserve her body heat, but when he came back, she stood up. “You’re back,” she said with relief.

“I told you I would be, didn’t I?” he smiled.

“I’m cold. I want to go home.”

“I know. But we’ll be there before you know it.” He held a hand out for her to take. “It looks like we’ll go this way, okay?”

The snow that had been coming had only increased during Jack’s look, and now the smaller girl was having trouble walking through it, slowing them down. He didn’t know what time it was, but knew her parents must be worried about her by now. He could practically hear her chattering teeth. The night was only getting colder. 

It was his fault. He was staying here too long, and it was throwing the weather out of whack. All the snow and the cold. It was her fault Alice was so cold and having trouble walking and lost in all of it.

Alice tripped and fell into the snow, pulling him out of his thoughts. Frozen tears tracked down her face. “I’m tired,” she complained softly. “I don’t want to go any further.”

“Just a little way more,” Jack told her.

She looked up at him. “You don’t know that.”

He hesitated. No, he didn’t, but he couldn’t tell her that.

He had an idea. “Come here. I’ll fly again, and I’ll take you with me.”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head fiercely. “No! What if I fall?”

“Just hold on tight.”

“What if I can’t?”

“Then I’ll hold on to you, and I promise I won’t let you fall.”

She looked at him, weighing her fear of falling with her absolute trust in her friend. She finally decided, and allowed him to pick her up. Her shivers shook his own body, and he wished he could warm her up.

“Okay, ready?” he asked her softly.

“Mm,” she murmured, eyes closing.

He shook her gently. In all his years of winter, he had seen people fall asleep from the cold, and never wake up again. Maybe she was just tired, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He had to get her home.

“Wind,” he said, “take us back.”

The wind swept him up into the air. His fear for the little girl wasn’t helping the snow. He tried to concentrate, to make it stop. The wind blew him along, helping his own magic to speed them back to warmth and safety.

Finally, he found her house, made more noticeable by the police cars in front of it. Oh, no, he thought. She was really going to be in trouble. He looked down at her. But not as much trouble as she would’ve been in the woods, he reminded himself.

He drifted to the ground, looking down at her. She was sound asleep. He gave her a gentle shake, then a rough one. “Come on, Alice,” he said. “It’s time to have some fun.”

She moaned in her sleep, resting her head against his chest.

He held her close, hoping he was providing some kind of warmth for her. His arms were starting to get tired from carrying her, but he still had to get her inside. He hurried to the house, talking to her all the way.

“We’re almost there, Alice, see? There’s your house! In just a couple minutes, you’re going to be wrapped up in a nice warm blanket. I bet your mom will even make you hot cocoa, you know how much you love that.”

He rang the doorbell, and waited until he heard footsteps approaching before dropping her lightly on the porch. He leapt over the porch rail, but stayed close to watch as the door opened.

“Alice!” her mother cried out in relief. Her father immediately scooped her up and rushed her inside.

Jack peered into a window, watching as they wrapped her up in layers of blankets. Her mother stripped off the wet clothes and rubbed warmth into the child’s limbs while her father talked to the police officers inside. He smiled in relief when he saw Alice waking up. She would be okay.

But that incident only showed Jack that everything had its season, and winter’s season in this town was over.


	3. His Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Jack returns for the winter, will Alice still believe?

A year passed.

Jack was coming back.

He knew how much things could change in a year. He had seen enough of them pass. The old adage, “The more things change, the more they stay the same” worked in reverse, too—things stayed the same, but they also changed.

It was the change he was worried about.

Alice’s parents had been trying to convince her Jack was imaginary when he left. She had been insistent that they were wrong, that he was real, but after he’d been gone for months, could he really expect her to still believe that? It seemed more likely that she’d allowed herself to stop believing, and that’s if she hadn’t forgotten about him entirely.

He remembered telling her he had to leave. It had been just a few days after they had gotten lost.

“No, you can’t!” she had cried, eyes wide in fear. “You’re my only friend, you have to stay!”

“You’ll make other friends, too,” he assured her.

“No, I won’t! They all hate me.”

“You just have to show them how cool you are. Show them your awesome throwing arm. Tell them a story, show them your imagination. They’ll love you.”

“They never have before,” she pouted.

“You weren’t used to having a friend before,” he said with a smile as he ruffled her hair. “Now that you’ve got some practice, it’ll be a breeze.”

She giggled at his teasing, then looked up at him hopefully. “Really?” she asked.

“Would I lie to you?”

She thought for a moment. “I don’t think so. But lots of people lie,” she pointed out.

“Well, not me. I might trick you,” he added with a wink, “but I’ll never lie to you. And when it’s this serious, I won’t even do that.”

She nodded solemnly, willing to place her trust in him.

He smiled and knelt down to give her a hug. On the one hand, he hoped she wouldn’t make any other friends, that she would stay his forever. But he knew that that was selfish, and so he wished her as many friends as she could count, and he knew she could count pretty high.

Would she have friends? he wondered now, as he landed on top of her school building in a crouch. Would she still even need him?

The school bell rang, and children poured out of the doors in excitement. It saddened him to think that of all those kids, only one could even see him, and he didn’t know if he even had that anymore.

He scanned the crowd until he spotted her. She wore her favorite purple dress, with her hair tied back in a braid. She hung towards the back of the crowd, frowning as she was pushed along with the tide.

Don’t frown, Alice, he thought, as it lightly began to snow.

The little blinked as the first snowflake landed on her nose and stopped. The other children grew more animated at this first sign of winter, already chattering excitedly about snowball fights and snowmen. They moved around the still figure until she was alone.

She looked up, ice blue eyes staring right at Jack, and he held his breath as he gave her a small smile and a wave.

She smiled back, eyes lighting up, and whispered, “Jack Frost.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have Asperger's Syndrome, and since Alice is a (thinly disguised) version of myself, in my head, she's an Aspie, or borderline, as well. That's why she has trouble making friends, why she's alone a lot, and why she "believes in everything."


	4. Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is back, and it's time for some more fun...until there's trouble.

He grinned and swept down to her, wind whipping around them in his excitement. His feet had barely touched the ground when she threw her arms around him in a hug. “Whoa!” he said at the sudden contact.

“You came back!” she cried out happily.

“I told you I would,” he told her.

“Are you going to stay this time?” she asked hopefully.

He hesitated, then decided to answer honestly. “I probably shouldn’t. Even too much winter can be a problem. Remember last year? Besides, I need to spread the fun around!”

“As long as you always come back,” she said seriously.

“Of course.”

“And as long as I’m always still your best friend,” she added.

He smiled and nodded. “Of course,” he said again.

Satisfied, she jumped up and down eagerly. “Let’s play, Jack, let’s play!”

They hadn’t played long, though, before they heard shouting.

“Alice!” Alice’s mother came running up to where they sat on the school playground jungle gym. “Get down here right this instant!”

Alice looked at Jack with wide eyes before doing as her mother said. As she hit the ground, her mother grabbed her arm. “What have you been doing? I got home from work, and you weren’t at home like you should’ve been! You know you’re supposed to go right home after school! Have you just been out here playing this whole time?”

“Oh,” Alice said softly.

“That’s all you have to say? ‘Oh’? I’ve been worried sick!”

“I forgot,” she explained. “See, Jack Frost came back—“

It was the wrong thing to say. Her mother sighed and shook her head. “I thought you were over that, Alice,” she said. “You know Jack Frost isn’t real.”

“He is!” Alice protested. “He just had to leave, so we could have summer and other places could have winter.”

“Alice!” Her mother knelt to be eye level to her and shook her. “You cannot do this. You cannot break the rules for some silly childish game. You are too old for imaginary friends, and you shouldn’t be doing this, anyway. When you do it for your imaginary friends, that just makes it worse.”

“He’s not imaginary!” Alice said again, looking over at Jack, who was watching it all helplessly. “He’s real! He’s right—“

“Alice!” her mother yelled at her, and Alice winced. Her mother sighed. “Your father can deal with this,” she said decisively. “Let’s go home. And from now on, you come straight home after school. And no playing outside, at all, for a week.”

“But, mom--” Alice started.

“Don’t,” she said, a tired but hard steel to her voice that made Alice shush. As her mother led her away, she looked back at Jack. He smiled comfortingly at her, but couldn’t help feeling sorry for the trouble he had caused her.

Not that that would stop them from having fun in the future. They’d just have to be a little more careful about it.


	5. At Least One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But Alice was growing up. People became less and less accepting of her little imaginary friend. She was happy, but the world was much bigger than she was, and its opinion mattered more.

They were more careful as the years passed. They had a couple of close calls, but never anything as terrifying as the snow storm or as troublesome as his first return. He would leave as spring approached, and return with the first snowfall of winter. For a few months, Alice would have her best friend. She would laugh more in those months than the entire rest of the year, spending almost all her free time outdoors in the snow.

But Alice was growing up. People became less and less accepting of her little imaginary friend. She had learned to keep quiet about him, but when she would build snowmen while talking to thin air, or chatter away excitedly in her room with two mugs of hot chocolate, it did little good. People tried to get her to make “real” friends, and to her credit, she did try. But whether it was the fact of having a friend considered imaginary, her firm hold on her childlike innocence, or any of her other quirks, it was much easier said than done. She had a few school friends who would work on projects with her and who might talk to her in the halls, but none she spent time with after school, and none remotely as close to her as Jack.

She was happy with that. Most people saw a strange, lonely child, and sometimes, she wished she could be what they considered normal. For the most part, though, she was happy, and the thrill of the first snowflakes were, to her, worth all the moments of loneliness, teasing, and scolding. She wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Unfortunately, the world was much bigger than she was, and its opinion mattered more. Which was why, when she was entered high school still obviously spending time with the sprite, her parents informed her that she would be seeing a psychiatrist.

How she hated that. Not only did it take up time she could have been spending with her friend, it also brought about increased supervision, which ate away at her time with him even more. The teachers and kids at school treated her as more of a freak than usual. The doctor gave her medications, antipsychotics, that left her feeling depressed and lethargic, but her parents made sure she took them every day. Not to mention, the doctor kept trying to convince her that it was all in her head, that she needed to grow up and be realistic, and there was only so much of it she could take!

Fine, she decided tiredly, she would give them what they wanted.

 

“Is Jack Frost here now?” the psychiatrist asks.

The question always comes up in their sessions. This time, she manages to keep her eyes trained on the doctor, never flicking for even an instant to the figure in the corner of the room. “No.” She even manages to keep her voice steady and assured.

The doctor watches her for a moment, perhaps waiting for some betrayal, but she is perfectly composed. Ice, she thinks wryly. Ice queen, made of ice.

Her act must work, because the doctor smiles, tells her how proud he is of their progress. He schedules another appointment, but it’s “just a formality,” he’s confident of her “success.” To be honest, once she realizes she passed the test, she zones out and ignores everything he says. She’ll do whatever it takes to get out of there, for good, but she doesn’t actually care about any of it.

When she’s finally released, she allows herself to sneak a look around for her friend. She doesn’t dare call out, just in case she’s heard. She’s so sick of having to constantly question everything. It’s almost over, though. She can hardly dare to believe it.

She walks out of the building to wait for her parents to come pick her up. It’s started to snow while she was inside; Jack Frost is around somewhere. She smiles.

The smile fades when she notices him sitting on the bench outside the building. His hood is up, shoulders slumped, feet drawn up and arms wrapped around his knees. She knows that look too well, but never from him.

She sits down on the bench, starts to look around, but decides it doesn’t matter. You don’t ignore an upset friend just because you worry about how you’ll look. “You okay? Jack?”

His head whips up and he looks at her with eyes wide. “You can see me?”

“Of course I can, you know that.”

“In there…you said…”

Oh.

“Jack, I was just saying that to get out of there. If I told the truth, they’d give me more meds, I’d have to keep going to the doctor, maybe even the hospital. I was just saying what they wanted to hear.”

“Oh.” He smiles at her with such relief and joy that it sends a pang through her heart. She thinks that she would voluntarily go to the meetings for the rest of her life, take twice the medication they prescribe her, if it means never having to see him looking so lost again. And she will. She will never deny him again.

She smiles back at him, and takes his hand in hers. “Don’t worry. You’ll always have at least one believer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off a scene in this story: http://archiveofourown.org/works/957599/chapters/1875046


	6. Believe Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack makes a decision.

He knows it’s for the best. That doesn’t make it any easier.

He was there at her last appointment, and he saw the frown the doctor gave when she lifted her chin and answered his question in the affirmative. She then looked over at him proudly, smiling. It almost killed him. He beat it out of there after that. He knew what was coming—more doctors, more “medicine”, more meetings—and he knew he couldn’t bear to hear that.

He found himself in the tree where they first met, and it’s there he’s been sitting for the past couple hours, trying to think of what to do. That’s not exactly accurate, though—he knows what he has to do, he’s just trying to think his way away from it. But it’s no good; he keeps coming back to the only possible solution. It’ll kill them both, but it’s better than continuing the way they are now.

He hears his name, and his heart jumps—he’ll never get used to hearing it, to being noticed and known, and now he definitely never will. He looks down to see her standing under his branch, looking up at him. She wears a tentative smile and confused eyes. She can see that he’s distracted, but she’s not quite sure why or how she can help.

No time like the present, he thinks, and jumps down to land next to her. She steps lightly out of the way to make room for him. Now he’s the one looking around to make sure no one notices.

“It’s okay,” she tells him, a firmness to her voice. It’s okay because there’s no one around at this time, and it’s okay because she no longer cares even if there were.

“What’s the damage?” he asks her, not looking at her.

She bites her lip. “More meetings. Upped the antipsychotics, added some other pill to counteract side effects. The usual.” After a moment, she adds quietly, “And they…they mentioned hospitalization. For awhile. To see.”

He nods, and now he looks at her. She’s hiding it well, but he can see the idea of hospitalization terrifies her.

“Is that a sure thing?”

She gives a one-shoulder shrug. “They’re talking seriously about it. But it sounds like they’re going to try to hold off for a couple weeks more. My parents don’t want to do it, but they don’t see any other choice.”

Here’s his chance. Still, there’s a few moments of silence while he struggles to work up the nerve to actually say it. Finally—“I’m…going to go away for awhile.”

She looks at him hesitantly, frowning in confusion. “You always do,” she says slowly. “And you always come back.”

“Yeah.” He’s not sure on this point. He can’t stand the thought of never seeing her again, but he’s not sure if there can ever be an again. He pictures another three hundred years of isolation and shudders.

“Thing is,” he finally manages to continue, “I don’t know if I will this time.”

“Jack—“ her voice rises in protest.

“Listen, Alice, it’s for the best. They’re going to put you in a hospital, because of me. All the meds and the doctors, it’s all because of me—“

“It’s not—“

But he can’t stop, not now, or he might lose it. “And I hate it, and you hate it, so really, the best thing is to just leave. Besides,” he looks at her sadly, “you’re a grown-up now. Too old to believe in Jack Frost.”

“I’m hardly a grown-up,” the teenager scoffs. “And I’ll never be too old, not even when I’m ninety, a hundred.”

“Believe me, it’s for the best. Bye, Alice.” He turns away from her and takes to the air. As he flies away, for good this time, she calls after him.

“Of course I’ll believe. I’ll never stop believing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of this part of the story. I do have some ideas to go on past this (as if I would leave Alice and Jack friendless forever!). Keep an eye out, and let me know if I should go on.


End file.
